Chanel Korea Employees Treatment
Chanel Korea’s average annual salary is 51.87 million won, and last year they went on a full strike.
In recent times, department stores have been expanding their VIP customer service, especially in the premium service sector, leading to continuous complaints in luxury stores known as the cash cow category of department stores. This noise is attributed to the fact that most luxury brands are not included in department store gift events despite their high prices, there are hardly any discount events, and it is difficult to reserve products unless you are a VIP customer, making it challenging for the general public to access.
Challenges between Chanel Korea and its employees have been ongoing due to conflicts between employees and management. Moreover, the media often highlights behaviors from luxury store employees that seem discriminatory towards regular and VIP customers, leading to continued controversies.
Initially, it was speculated that the salaries of employees working in luxury brand stores would be high. In fact, to become a Chanel employee, specific qualifications are required, leading to a high level of salary forecasts for them. According to Job Planet, Chanel Cosmetic’s beauty advisor requires a makeup license holder or a major in beauty to be preferred, while Chanel’s fashion watch and jewelry business advisor needs a major in fashion/styling and related certified qualification holders and relevant work experience.
Along with supporting Chanel duty-free stores, it was reported that obtaining a Chinese language test score is essential, and even in general stores, having an HSK Level 4 or higher can earn bonus points. Due to relatively strict conditions, Chanel Korea is seen to provide various welfare benefits.
According to Job Planet, Chanel Korea ensures the four major insurances and retirement pensions, grants annual 6 days of family leave in addition to annual leave (15 days after one year of service), provides long-term service rewards for over 5 years of service, supports children’s education expenses (kindergarten, high school, university tuition), and condolence expenses. Furthermore, regular English education and cultural experiences such as wine classes are conducted for employee capacity development.
Chanel Korea’s recent audit report revealed that Chanel Korea achieved sales of 1.7038 trillion won in Korea last year. With high sales, it is speculated that the salaries of employees will also be high. However, employee salaries do not seem to be proportionate to high sales.
In fact, according to Job Korea, the average salary of Chanel Korea employees is approximately 51.87 million won, which is relatively lower than the average salary of 56.26 million won for Christian Dior Couture Korea. However, it is crucial to note that the average salary includes executives and contract workers. In reality, the starting salary for Chanel Korea’s new employees is around 39 million won. Regarding the salary system, Chanel Korea reportedly provides fixed salary (base salary, allowances) and variable salary (monthly performance-based system) to its employees.
Moreover, it is understood that Chanel Korea utilizes a team incentive system, allowing individuals to receive incentives even if their performance is weak. However, the use of incentive systems leads to criticisms such as pressure on executives to perform and a rigid organizational atmosphere.
Chanel Korea has been previously criticized for poor working conditions. In 2018, 334 Chanel employees working in nationwide department stores filed a lawsuit against the company demanding additional compensation for overtime labor.
The overtime labor claimed by the employees refers to the time spent preparing for work by arriving early at the department store, where Chanel Korea effectively forced them to arrive 30 minutes early, violating employment rules and labor standards. This issue seems to be a problem not only limited to Chanel Korea employees but affecting the luxury department store sector as a whole.
To improve the poor treatment and working environment in 2019, employees of luxury stores including Chanel formed the Department Store Duty-Free Store Sales Service Labor Union (Baekmyeon Union). They plan to stop immediately responding to rude customers, suggest regular store closures, shorten operating hours, and explore various measures to enhance employee welfare.
However, having failed to find clues in wage and collective bargaining negotiations with management in 2023, Chanel Korea’s sales staff reportedly entered a strike. According to the labor union, Chanel branch union members conducted a 3-day strike for deceptive negotiation attitudes by management and issues such as the reversal of basic salaries.
The union stated, “Setting the basic salary of new sales employees higher than that of 10-year experienced employees ignored ‘basic wage system.’ The problem where the basic salary of 10-year experienced employees is lower than that of employees who joined in July this year cannot be overlooked.” Moreover, in July, the union demanded that emotional labor surcharges of 20,000 won be paid monthly, while discussions on emotional labor holidays are still ongoing without agreement.